The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the

“The ninety and nine are with dreams, content, but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.” Thus spoke Edgar Allan Poe, a man who walked between the realms of imagination and truth. In this powerful saying lies an ancient and eternal lesson: that while most men dwell in the comfort of dreams, only the rare one acts. The world is shaped not by those who imagine what could be, but by the hundredth man — the solitary soul who refuses to be lulled by visions and instead labors to transform them into reality.

The ninety and nine, Poe tells us, are those who dream of beauty, justice, or glory — and are satisfied to leave their dreams unfulfilled. They speak of change, but they do not build it. They love the idea of the dawn but do not rise early to meet it. The world is filled with such dreamers — gentle, kind, and perhaps wise — yet the world moves because of the hundredth man, the one who bears the burden of action. He is not content with the sweetness of thought; he is grimly bent, meaning he toils with unwavering resolve. For hope, to be real, must take form through effort and will.

From the ancient ages to our modern time, the story of progress is the story of this hundredth man. Consider Mahatma Gandhi, who was not the first to dream of freedom for his people — that dream had been whispered for generations. But he was the one who turned it from a vision into a movement. He walked barefoot across the salt plains, faced prison and scorn, and yet did not falter. The ninety and nine dreamed of liberation; he made it flesh. Every nation, every age, owes its renewal not to the multitude who wish, but to the few who work until their wish becomes law.

Such men and women walk a lonely path. They are rarely celebrated at first. Their peers call them stubborn, or even mad, for they labor where others rest. But their grimness is not cruelty — it is devotion. For they understand that the beauty of a dream lies not in the imagining, but in the becoming. The artist who paints, the inventor who builds, the reformer who suffers for a cause — these are the living proof of Poe’s wisdom. The world is not made by dreamers alone, but by dreamers who act.

There is a deep melancholy in Poe’s words, for he knew the loneliness of the visionary who works. He himself was a dreamer of vast imagination, yet his life was marked by struggle and misunderstanding. He saw clearly that for every hundred who dream, there will be but one who rises to carve those dreams into stone. Yet it is precisely that one — that hundredth soul — who carries the hope of the world made new. Without such spirits, humanity would remain asleep in its own longing.

To those who hear this teaching, take heed: it is easy to dream, but it is sacred to do. The world needs not more vision, but more will. Let your dreams burn within you until they demand action. Rise from the comfort of imagining and set your hands to work. Write the book that calls to you, build the bridge that others only talk about, speak the truth that others only think. Be among the hundredth, not the ninety and nine.

For in the end, the hope of the world has always rested on a few — on the shoulders of those who dare to bring the unseen into light. So let your dreams be more than whispers. Shape them, sweat for them, suffer for them. Let your will be as fierce as your vision, and your labor as vast as your hope. Then, when your task is done and your breath spent, the world will look upon your work and know — this was the labor of the hundredth man, who was grimly bent on making dreams come true.